I would dare to say that if the course isn't to learn vi/vim he shouldn't care over what platform I develop.
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BraiamFeb 13 '14 at 19:16

How does the professor know that you aren't using an IDE? Do you have live lessons where you are required to code? Is the exam done on a computer?
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BakuriuFeb 13 '14 at 21:17

vi should be on most systems already, it's a standard part of Unix. One of the advantages of knowing vi is that it's pretty much guaranteed to be on any Unix-like system, even things like Busybox.
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david25272Feb 14 '14 at 3:51

First: install vim. Otherwise you're in for a world of pain. Second: you should try looking for something called a 'cheat sheet'. They're useful documents which contain mostly commands and a small explanation. Some examples:

vi is super frustrating if you don't know your way around it. You get a sea of little tildes and you're supposed to know what to do? Eesh.

I recommend at least installing gvim so you have a help menu. It isn't an IDE so you aren't cheating on your class. Do apt-get install gvim -- gvim has menus for when you can't remember how the heck you're supposed to open a dang file or save one. The keyboard shortcuts are all listed on the menus, so you can start to learn.

If you want to become a vim ninja in a fun way, try this: http://vim-adventures.com/. You learn all the basic vim functionality by playing a fun little game.

And as an extra: if you prefer moving around with the arrow keys instead of the letters and you want backspace to behave as in nano (at least I do), you can add the following in your ~/.vimrc file (if you do not have one, just create it):

Note that only the first three levels of VIM Adventures are free. To learn more than some basics (the keys hjkl, bew, x, and B) from the game, it costs $25. Though it might be helpful to learn those basics using the game and then continue to a different tutorial (like vimtutor) when the game shows the paywall.
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Rory O'KaneMar 30 '14 at 21:39